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AFL-CIO Backs SAG-AFTRA Strike Against Video Game Companies

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has issued a strong statement of support for the six-day-old SAG-AFTRA voice actors strike against video game companies.

“The AFL-CIO stands in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA voice-over and motion-capture performers who are on strike after failed negotiations with eleven video game employers,” Trumka said. “Performers deserve a modern contract that offers the protections necessary to work in today’s video game industry.”

“No one wants a strike. But, for nearly two years video game employers have been unwilling to meet basic demands necessary to bring this collective bargaining agreement up to the standards of other mature industry contracts. We urge video game employers to negotiate in good faith and work with SAG-AFTRA to bargain a fair agreement.”

More than 100 supporters rallied Monday at Electronic Arts in Playa del Rey, Calif., to back the strike. The performers union launched the strike on Oct. 21 against EA and 10 other video game makers after negotiations cratered over the key issues of secondary compensation (residuals) and transparency — meaning that the union wants companies to stop being able to hire without identifying the game.

More than 96% of those voting among the 5,000 “affected” members — those who have worked on the contract — approved a strike authorization last year.

Reps for the 11 companies assert that they matched SAG-AFTRA’s requests for wages, benefits, and additional compensation before the union called its strike. They have also criticized the union leaddership for not putting the companies’ final proposal up to a member vote.

Under the Oct. 21 strike order, SAG-AFTRA members are barred from working for Electronic Arts and 10 other video game companies — Activision Publishing, Blindlight, Corps of Discovery Films, Disney Character Voices, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Interactive Associates, Take-Two Interactive Software, VoiceWorks Prods. and WB Games.

SAG-AFTRA leaders have said that there will be additional demonstrations but have not revealed when or where those would take place.

SAG-AFTRA is one of the 56 unions in The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO), which reps more than 12 million members. SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris is a member of the executive council of the AFL-CIO.

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